This book has a very appealing sense of humor. At about 4 pages in (Space biker riding snooker balls), I already liked it because of that. All in all, it was a pretty good read. I didn't come to really care about the characters, but it held my interest and didn't make me groan.

The writing isn't perfect, but it's good, and the dialogue was really good. Race was dealt with fairly deftly, and the science only extended into pseudo-jargon a few times.

I'm really wary that this book could collapse into being unreadable, if the science gets taken to the "it sounds complicated" territory (real science generally doesn't use a bunch of jargon once it is done), it delves further into politics, or it gets preachy, etc. However, I will be giving it a second issue, at least, because I enjoyed this one.

Side note: I take some issue with the "bitter-at-God" brand of atheism portrayed, and, worse, it's coupled with "science worship." There is such a thing as well-adjusted, non-bitter non-belief. I was hoping that the most overt atheist in the DCU would be that brand of atheist. No luck there. Most atheists that I know would see the irony in being atheist because you're mad at god and don't feel the need to religion, belief, or worship of any kind. They're not bitter, not "Darwinists," and not pushing or practicing belief in anything, science or otherwise.

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Zack: I'm pretty sure our soul is composed of a series of toy commercials that ran from 1984-1988. When we die Hasbro does with us what they please.